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Remembrance Day

For my personal salute on Remembrance Day here in Canada, I think there is a forgotten group of brave men and women who acted as spies and resistance fighters. When caught, these brave souls had no protection from the rules of war...without a uniform, they were tortured and shot...(many times groups of innocent people were rounded up and shot as well ).

One such spy from WW11 is Krystyna Skarbek. A Polish born beauty, she left her new home in Kenya, to return to Europe and skied the Tatra Mountains from Hungary in -30 degree Celsius into Poland working with agents and resistance groups.

When captured, Krystyna purposely bit into her tongue make blood flow in order to convince her captors she had tuberculosis...they believed her!

She then fled to England but then returned to France to further her fight against the Nazis. There are so many accomplishments this woman has made that it would take hours to write this blog post. Though she made it through the war, in 1952 she was stabbed to death by a co-worker that was infatuated with her....he was later hanged for his crime.

It is thought that Krystyna was the inspiration for the character, Vesper Lynd in the James Bond film, Casino Royale. As with many spies, she never received the respect that she truly deserved. We salute you Krysyna and all the other spies from WW1 and WW11!